Taiwan is investigating whether a ship with ties to China was responsible for damaging one of the undersea cables that connect Taiwan to the internet, which could mean that Taiwan’s critical infrastructure has suffered damage from China. This served as another reminder of how vulnerable we are.
The incident comes amid growing concern in Europe over apparent acts of sabotage, including attacks on undersea communications cables. In November, two fiber-optic cables under the Baltic Sea were severed, prompting Swedish, Finnish and Lithuanian officials to anchor a Chinese-flagged commercial vessel in the area for several weeks over possible involvement.
In Taiwan, communication routes were changed immediately after the damage was discovered, and no major failures occurred. Chunghwa Telecom, the island’s main telecommunications provider, received notice Friday morning that the cable, known as the Trans-Pacific Express Cable, had been damaged. Its cables also connect South Korea, Japan, China and the United States.
That afternoon, Taiwan’s coast guard seized a cargo ship off the coast of the northern city of Keelung and operated in waters near where six cables had landed. According to the Taiwan Coast Guard, the ship was owned by a Hong Kong company and had seven Chinese nationals on board.
The damaged cable is one of more than a dozen cables that help keep Taiwan online. These fragile cables are susceptible to damage by anchors dragged along the ocean floor by many ships in the high-traffic waters around Taiwan.
Analysts and officials say that while it is difficult to prove whether the damage to these cables was intentional, such actions are a sign of intimidation and psychological warfare by China aimed at weakening Taiwan’s defenses. He says it fits the pattern.
Taiwan said the seized cargo ship was registered in both Cameroon and Tanzania. “We cannot exclude the possibility that a Chinese flag of convenience vessel is involved in gray zone harassment,” the Coast Guard said in a statement Monday.
Yixuo Tseng, a researcher at the National Institute for Defense and Security Studies, a think tank funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, said such harassment is a nuisance to Taiwan’s military, but does not lead to open confrontation, but it will increase over time. It is also said to have the effect of dulling the senses. That leaves Taiwan at risk of being caught by surprise if an actual conflict breaks out, Tseng said.
Taiwan’s territorial waters and airspace are violated almost every day by the People’s Liberation Army. Last month, China sent about 90 naval and coast guard vessels to the area, the first such deployment in nearly 30 years.
China has also sent armed fishing boats and coastguards to disputes around the South China Sea and stepped up patrols just miles from the coast of Taiwan’s remote islands, raising the risk of dangerous confrontations.
Gregory Pauling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said such harassment “has been a definitive demonstration of China’s coercive power over Taiwan for decades, but in recent years It has really strengthened over the years.”
And in situations like this and the recent damage to cables in the Baltic Sea, it is difficult for authorities to coordinate a response when the identity of the vessel is uncertain.
“Do we send a Coast Guard ship every time there is an illegal sand dredger, or in this case, every time a flag of convenience vessel with ties to China damages an undersea cable? ” asked Mr. Pauling.
Ship tracking data and vessel records analyzed by the Times indicate that the vessels may have been reporting their locations under false names.
Taiwan said the ship appears to be using two sets of Automatic Identification System devices, which are used to signal a vessel’s location. On January 3, at the moment Taiwan announced that the cable was damaged, a ship named Shunxing 39 was reporting AIS positions in waters off Taiwan’s northeast coast.
Approximately nine hours later, at approximately 4:51 p.m. local time, Shun Xing 39 stopped transmitting location data. That came shortly after Taiwan’s Coast Guard announced it had found the ship and asked it to return to waters outside Keelung port to investigate.
One minute later, 50 feet away, the ship, the Shin Shun 39, which had not reported its location since late December, was spotted, said William Conroy, a maritime analyst with Semaphore Maritime Solutions in Wildwood, Missouri. began to send out signals. Who analyzed AIS data from ship tracking platform Starboard.
Ship tracking databases identify both Xing Shun 39 and Shun Xing 39 as cargo ships with Class A AIS transponders. Typically, cargo ships equipped with this class of transponder are required to register with the International Maritime Organization and are large enough to obtain a unique identification number known as an IMO number. Xing Shun 39 has an IMO number, but Shun Xing 39 does not appear in the IMO database. Conroy said this suggests that “Xing Shun 39” is the true identity of the ship, and that “Shun Xing 39” is a fake.
Taiwan’s coast guard identified the ship as Shunxing 39 and said it was using two AIS systems.
Ship and corporate records show that Jie Yang Trading Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company, took over as owner of Xing Shun 39 in April 2024.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said the waves were too large to carry out further investigation aboard the cargo ship. The government said Taiwan has asked South Korea for assistance after the cargo ship’s crew claimed it was headed for Taiwan.
In 2023, the Matsu Archipelago is a remote island where the coast of China can be seen. Survived the patchy Internet It’s been several months since two undersea internet cables broke. These fiber optic cables that connect Taiwan to the internet suffered about 30 similar breaks between 2017 and 2023.
The frequent breakages are a reminder that Taiwan’s communications infrastructure must be able to withstand crises.
To ensure that Taiwan can stay online even if cables fail, the government is building a network of low-orbit satellites that can beam internet from space to Earth. Importantly, Taiwanese authorities are rushing to set up the system without Elon Musk’s involvement. Mr. Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, dominates the satellite internet industry but is wary because of its deep business ties to China.
